A unified communications (UC) system generally refers to a system that provides users with an integration of communication services. Users typically connect to the UC system through a single client to access the integrated communications services. The integrated communications services may include real-time services, such as instant messaging (IM), presence notifications, telephony, and video conferencing, as well as non real-time services, such as email, SMS, fax and voicemail.
Organizations, such as corporations, businesses, educational institutions, and government entities, often employ UC systems to enable internal communication among its members in a uniform and generally cost-efficient manner. In addition, organizations may employ UC systems for communicating with trusted external entities.
Currently, a number of third-party developers offer various US applications for implementing UC systems. The various applications include MICROSOFT® Office Communications Server (OCS), IBM® SAMETIME® (ST), GOOGLE® Apps, and CISCO JABBER®. Because there is no industry standard regarding UC systems, issues of incompatibility arise when a user from one UC system needs to search user information of another user from a UC system. In one case, a corporation or business that employs a particular UC system may desire to contact employees who employ a different UC system. Or in the case of internal communication, when an organization that employs a particular UC system “A” merges with another organization that employs a UC system “B”, the ability for users on system “A” to search user information of users on system “B” is often desirable. Nevertheless, the incompatibility of the UC systems often makes searching of user information in a different UC system difficult or impossible to implement. Furthermore, even if two UC systems are of a common type, users from one UC system may not be able to search user information of users on a second UC system due to a lack of access to the second UC system.